by C. J. Hill
She didn’t slow her pace. “What if one of those fireballs had hit me in the face?”
“Then Alyssa would have healed you, and Dr. B would have given you extra work for not being careful.”
Tori shook her head. “Unbelievable.”
“This isn’t a game. People’s lives are at stake.”
“Yeah, tonight my life was at stake.”
“It always has been,” he said softly. “You’re a Slayer.”
“Not anymore. I quit.”
He came around her side so he hovered in front of her. “Why don’t I fly you back to camp, and we’ll talk?”
She didn’t answer. She wasn’t giving in. She didn’t want Jesse to think he could talk her into anything. Still, she did want to try flying again now that she wasn’t so shocked by the whole idea. This time it might feel like the flying she did in her dreams.
“Carrying me doesn’t make you tired?” she asked.
He swooped down and grabbed her around the waist. The next moment, they soared upward as effortlessly as a plane lifting from a runway. “Nope. We’ve got increased strength. You could carry me if you tried.”
She rested her arms over his, liking the security of his embrace. Facing forward was better. She no longer felt like she was about to slip. A breeze rushed against her face, bringing the rich scent of the outdoors with it.
“Scared?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then we won’t take the direct route.” He dipped into the forest and slowly swerved around several trees. As they went past an especially tall oak, he turned on his side. They flew like this for a few moments, and then Jesse swerved around another group of trees and turned on his other side. If Tori had held out her hand, she could have run her fingers across the new growth at the branches’ tips. She wanted to, but didn’t dare let go of Jesse’s arms.
He glided upward and out of the trees, then rolled on his back so she lay against his chest, facing the stars. Their studded light streamed down on her. It was like her own personal amusement ride, floating up here between the forest and the moon. She had to admit, it was incredible.
If she had the gift of flight, she would be out here every night, backstroking under the stars. But she probably didn’t have that ability. Dr. B had said she most likely had the gift of sight, which even Dirk thought was boring. Who wanted to see what dragons saw, when dragons were such horrible, blood-thirsty creatures?
Besides, if Dirk could do it, why did they need her?
Jesse turned so they faced the forest again, and a calm sea of branches spread out beneath them. His arms held her snuggly, and everything seemed so tranquil. So intimate. He was sharing the stars and the trees with her; sharing spins and glides and lifts. It was like they were ice skating in the air. She felt close to Jesse in a way she couldn’t explain—a connectedness. She let the feeling sink into her, saturate her.
“Okay, this is amazing,” she finally said. “But it doesn’t make up for the fireballs.”
He lifted and took her straight up, speeding faster than he’d gone before. “Do you want me to let you go?”
She grabbed hold of his arms, panicked. The warm feelings she had for him evaporated. “Is that a threat? You’ll drop me unless I stay?”
“No,” he said slowly, “I was asking if you wanted to try it on your own.” He let out a sigh of disappointment. “You don’t seem to have the instincts to fly.”
Well, she might have wanted to try it if he’d put the question differently. Why was everything these people did some sort of test? That ticked her off, too. Mostly because she’d failed the tests. Or at least, it felt like failure.
Jesse drifted downward again. “You can unclamp your hands from my arms now. I’m not going to drop you.”
She made herself relax her hold. His arms had white spots where her fingers had gripped them. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I just really hoped you had the gift of flight.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer for a few seconds, then said, “The original dragon knights had all the powers. Besides having night vision and extra strength, they could shield, shock, fly, heal, douse fire, and see into the dragon’s mind. They must have been incredible to watch, to be …” He let the sentence, the wish fade into the air. “Chromosomes split when you pass them on to your children and most of the gifts split apart, too.”
Jesse dipped down into the trees again, tilted on his side, and headed off in a new direction. “Do you remember back at the Easter grounds when Kody said his freezing shocks couldn’t kill a dragon, and you asked what could?”
“Yes.”
“No one answered because they didn’t want to scare you if you were a flyer. When it comes down to it, the rest of the gifts are just support. The other Slayers contain the dragon to minimize damage so the flyers can get close enough to kill it.” He said this unemotionally as though it didn’t worry him. “I have to puncture the dragon’s heart and make a big enough hole that it can’t reseal itself. They used swords and spears in the Middle Ages. We’re hoping that guns and arrows—if enough of them hit the target—will do the trick, too, but if not, I’m the only one who can go after a dragon in flight with a sword and reach the vulnerable part of its underbelly.” He glanced down at her face. “You probably think I’m horrible for wishing you were a flyer, don’t you?”
“No,” she said, glad for the first time she wasn’t one. What must it be like to know you not only had to face a dragon, but kill it? “Wow. By yourself. I’m sorry.”
“I won’t be by myself. I’ll have the others with me. I’ll have you, too.” He said it like it was a statement, but she knew it was a question.
She didn’t answer. He watched her, waiting for a response. She kept her gaze on the passing branches, all of them reaching for her. It felt like she was falling, falling into the darkness even though Jesse still held her close.
He flew higher up out of the trees again and increased his speed. Now that she could see the surroundings, she realized they were heading up the mountain, flying away from the camp.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I want to show you something.”
They climbed the mountain quickly, hugging the tree line. The air was colder up here, and the wind chilled her cheeks, ears, and legs—everything that wasn’t pressed next to Jesse. The rustle of leaves and branches sounded like the roar of the ocean.
They came to a rock outcropping, and he straightened, then landed. She let go of his arms and he walked over to the ledge and sat down. His legs dangled over the edge. She nearly told him to be careful, and then remembered he didn’t have to. He could fly.
He turned and motioned for her. “Come look at this view.”
She took small steps over to him, testing her weight with each footstep until she stood behind him. Underneath the ledge, way, way down, the tops of trees spread out beneath them in a lumpy silhouette. Off to the right, the lights from Hollings, the nearest town, glowed in protest to the darkness. She wasn’t sure what Jesse wanted her to see. “It’s a nice view,” she said.
He patted the rock beside himself. “Sit down.”
She didn’t move. “I could fall.”
“If you do, I’ll go after you.”
She wondered what speed people fell at, and if he could beat her to the ground. “It’s okay. I’ll stand. I can see the view from here.”
He let out a sigh—probably of disappointment. How many times had she heard that sigh since she’d come to camp? Gritting her teeth, she walked to the ledge and sat down beside him. Her legs dangled down into nothingness.
She shifted her weight, moving back a little. “How long can you be away from the simulator signal before you lose your powers?”
“A half an hour. We’ve been out of range for about ten minutes. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
She sat stiffly on the ledge, her hands pressed against the rocky surface.
His
lips twitched, fighting a smile. “If it helps, you can hold on to me.”
She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to admit how frightening it was to sit on the edge of an abyss. Her hand didn’t share the same pride, however. It grabbed hold of Jesse’s hand and interlocked her fingers with his.
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Look at the city lights.”
She did. They glowed like facets of a jewel against a black canvass.
“Each one of those lights represents a life. A mom tucking her kids in. A dad up doing the dishes. You’ve seen D.C. at night. It’s a blanket of lights for as far as you can see. More than half a million lives. Now imagine those lights extinguished.”
She couldn’t. It seemed impossible.
“When the dragons roar, they put out an electromagnetic pulse,” he said. “Think of EMP as a radio wave that destroys anything nearby that runs on electricity. One blast from a dragon, and lights, phones, televisions, cars, computers—they’re all ruined. Trucks won’t be able to get groceries to stores. The water supply will be cut off because water pumps have electric parts. So imagine the city plunged into darkness, crippled, and with dragons swooping through the streets. The people won’t stand a chance. How many cities will Overdrake have to destroy before the government buckles and surrenders to him?”
Tori stared out at the lights. “You said that enough bullets might kill a dragon. The one thing I know about D.C. is that it’s well armed.”
Jesse nodded even though she knew he wasn’t conceding the point. “Let’s say a few dozen bullets delivered at the same time to the heart will kill a dragon. Let’s say Overdrake hasn’t thought about that fact and hasn’t given the dragon any bulletproof reinforcements on its underbelly. How many people will die before the dragon does? A hundred? A thousand?”
He was trying to guilt her into saying she would stay and train even if it meant risking her life and taking a few fireballs in the face and who knew what else—after all, tonight was only the beginning for her. “A dragon only needs to eat one person to feed on,” she said. “Why would it kill a thousand?”
“Because that’s what Overdrake wants. He wants bloodshed and confusion. He wants to threaten the leaders of the country. And he’ll use his mind link with the dragons to get what he wants.”
Tori looked at the forest and didn’t answer.
Jesse pressed on. “But what if the dragon only did kill one person at a time? Would you walk away from the fight then? What if that one person was your father? He works in the capital, doesn’t he?”
She let go of Jesse’s hand and groaned, exasperated.
“If someone could help your father, but didn’t, what would you think of that person?”
She still didn’t answer. It was all too much. She didn’t want to think about her father in danger, didn’t want to admit Jesse was right.
“I know it feels overwhelming right now. We were all shocked when we first found out.” He gestured toward the lights. “But those people need us. They’re all somebody’s father, mother—somebody’s child.”
Off in the distance, the city lights twinkled like a small constellation that had fallen to earth. Thousands of people must live there, and it was only a small town. “We should let the military know about the dragons—” she began, but he didn’t let her finish.
“Telling people about our talents only puts us at risk. All it would take is one informant to sell us out. If Overdrake finds us, he’ll kill us, and then …” Jesse gazed back at the lights again.
“I could tell my father,” Tori said. “He wouldn’t do anything to put the Slayers at risk—not when I’m part of the group.”
“Exactly.” Jesse fixed her with a gaze. “Your father wouldn’t put you at risk, which is why you can’t tell him any of this.” Jesse leaned back, and then with a resentment she hadn’t expected, told her the story about Ryker Davis, the boy whose parents had fled instead of letting their son be trained. “Dr. B keeps saying that one day Ryker will find us, but he hasn’t shown up yet.” Jesse shook his head as though to dismiss the subject. “None of our parents would let us fight dragons. They wouldn’t believe it’s the only way to defeat Overdrake. But right now it is.” Jesse’s dark eyes didn’t waver from her face. “We need you, Tori.”
She grasped the rock ledge so hard that tiny chunks of it crushed in her hand like sand. Her life wasn’t supposed to be this way. She signed up for dragon camp, not saving the country. Still, it would be hard to walk away from all of this now. “Okay,” she said, “but no more fireballs in my face.”
“Practice only makes perfect, if it’s the right kind of practice. Fire is involved when fighting dragons. If you get burned in the face it means you weren’t paying attention … or sometimes that your team members weren’t paying attention.”
She tilted her chin down and gave him a disparaging grunt.
“It’s not that big a deal. Everyone has been burned at one time or another.” He stopped, correcting himself. “Well, everyone but Dirk. He says he can sense fireballs coming, but I think he’s just lucky. And fast. It’s the main reason Dr. B put him in charge of the A-team. You want a captain who’s not going to be killed by the first fire blast.”
Tori blinked at Jesse. “You’re not making me feel better about being a Slayer.”
“The scars aren’t that bad.” He pointed to his brow. “Look, I have one right here.”
She leaned closer. A faint white line crossed his forehead above one eyebrow. “It’s not that bad because you’re a guy. It only makes you look tough. It wouldn’t have the same effect on me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying your looks are more important than saving lives?”
Of course she wasn’t. Because that sounded shallow. “Couldn’t we wear welders’ masks or something while we practice?”
“We wore helmets the first year,” he said. “They just got in the way.” He picked up her hand and held it up for her to see. “Now that you’ve been exposed to the simulator, your skin will be extraresilient. Your hair will, too—eventually. Once the old growth is gone.” He tilted his head, examining her. “I’m sure you’ll look fine with short hair until then.”
She pulled her hand away from him. She didn’t feel comforted.
“You need to know about a few other things,” he said. “Protecting your powers means taking care of your body. You can’t do drugs. Not the illegal kind, but also not alcohol or tobacco. It interferes with the part of your brain that receives and implements the dragon’s signal.”
“Not an issue,” Tori said. She’d never felt the urge, not even for a moment. Could her body have known all along what she was supposed to do?
“If you take enough drugs, or anything that’s strong enough to make you pass out, you’ll destroy the neuropathways in your brain that access your powers. They’ll be gone, permanently.” Jesse’s voice dropped. “That’s why Langston Overdrake drugged Dr. B’s brother. He was trying to make Nathan lose his powers, but Overdrake gave Nathan too much and killed him.”
The words settled in Tori’s stomach like rocks. Nathan had been so young. He hadn’t even known about the dragons.
Jesse took a thin phone out of his pocket and handed it to Tori. “Now that you’re part of us, you’ll need this. It’s a satellite phone. Always keep it with you. That way your team can get ahold of you.”
She fingered the sleek, black phone, flipped it open, and looked at the screen. It was expensive—just like the motorcycles and no doubt many of the other camp extras. “How is Dr. B financing all this? Who’s giving him his funding?”
“He has a benefactor who helps out. Dr. B won’t tell us anything about him except that his name is Sam. Or her name is Sam. He’s vague about that point, too.”
“Sam,” Tori repeated with dissatisfaction. “That’s it? And it doesn’t bother you that you don’t know more?”
“Dr. B is big on secrecy. The Slayers aren’t listed anywhere on camp records. We’re not allowed
to tell one another where we live or to contact one another outside of camp unless it’s an emergency. We won’t tell you our real last names, and we’ll do our best to forget yours.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “It won’t work, what with your father being Senator Hampton. Anyway, if your dad makes his bid for a presidential run, your picture will be splashed all over the media.”
“He hasn’t decided whether to try for a nomination yet,” Tori said out of habit. It was the family’s stock answer whenever anybody brought up the subject, even though her father was already interviewing staff for his campaign.
Jesse ignored her assertion. “Your government connection made us a little nervous at first. We were afraid the CIA had learned something about us and sent you to see what we were doing.”
“Oh,” she said, seeing that conversation in the cafeteria in a new light.
“The secrecy is for the group’s protection,” Jesse said. “If Overdrake caught one of us, it’s better if we can’t tell him much about anybody else.”
She barely heard the last part of Jesse’s explanation. Her mind was stuck on the If Overdrake caught her thought. Jesse was basically implying that she might be stalked, kidnapped, and tortured for information.
This was so not getting easier to handle.
“I guess it goes without saying,” Jesse went on, “that you’ll have to come back here every summer for training. You’ll also need to go to college in the D.C. area so you’re close by when the attack happens.”
Tori gripped the phone, somehow unable to put it into her pocket. Putting it into her pocket meant she accepted all these rules. “I’ve been taking French since seventh grade so I could do a study abroad program there. You’re saying I’ll never be able to go?”
“Sure you can go. Right after we kill the dragons. I’ll drive you to the airport myself if I’m still alive.”
If he was still alive. He said it so casually, like he’d already resigned himself to the possibility he might not survive. It made her heart squeeze in her chest. What chances did any of them have? Jesse wasn’t just asking her to stay, he was asking her to lay down her life.
